Friday, June 10, 2011

New Car: 2011 Renaultsport Megane Trophy

One of our favourite hot-hatches is set to get even hotter. Renault has announced a special edition of the RenaultsportMegane 250 called the Megane Trophy.

Riding on the stiffer Cup chassis, the newcomer gets power boosted from 247bhp to 261bhp, with torque increased by 20Nm for a total of 260Nm making this the most powerful road-going Renaultsport Megane to date.

With the increase in power comes slight improvements to performance. The 0-62mph time is cut from 6.1 seconds to 6.0 seconds and top speed increases by 2mph to 158mph.

To mark out the special Megane, Renault offers two paint finishes – a metallic yellow or a metallic black – and 'Trophy' red decals on the air-intakes and doors. A set of 19-inch alloys in gloss black and red also feature.

Enthusiasts hoping for a successor to the previous generation Megane R26.R – a trackday machine which featured a stripped out cabin complete with roll-cage and harnesses – will be left waiting but a Renault spokesman refused to rule out an even more hardcore model further down the line.

The R26.R currently holds the front-wheel drive record at the Nurburgring and Renault has released a teaser video of engineers testing the Trophy at the famous track, suggesting they are attempting to beat the 8 minutes 16.9 seconds lap-time set by the stripped out hatch.

The Megane Trophy will be available from the 20th June, but buyers must be quick – Renault plans to produce 500 units in total with only 50 coming to the UK. Prices start from £27,280 – compared to £24,020 for the standard Megane 250 Cup – but the price includes free access to all Renaultsport trackdays in the UK.For more details click here.Thanks to: Auto Express